How to issue/use physical gift cards for an online-only store

Shopify Discussion
1

Hi

I’m looking into gift card implementation for a client who has an online store only (does not have POS)

They want to issue both digital and physical gift cards, all to be used online. Shopify native gift card solution looks like it might work.

It’s unclear from the Gift Card documentation & FAQs if POS is a requirement for issuing physical gift cards. It’s unclear how the gift card value gets loaded onto the physical card before dispatch.

Is there a guide or documentation on how exactly the fulfilment process for loading and dispatch of physical gift cards would work in this scenario?

Many thanks

2

Hi @Keoghscrisps ,

Hyde here from Shopify. I love your Community handle - they’re great crisps. And that is a great question!

The first thing you need to consider is that all gift card payments must be processed through the Shopify Checkout. This is important because it means that physical gift cards need to be processed through our POS system in order to be put through Shopify’s Checkout.

All this means is that you will need need to download the Shopify POS app to your iPad, iPhone, or Android on the appropriate operating system, (here is a list of the supported devices for the POS app) and you can then either use the camera of that device to scan the barcode on the gift card or you can manually input the code!

After you’ve downloaded the POS app you’ll be prompted to enter a 4 digit PIN. That PIN can be created by logging into your Shopify admin and heading to Settings > Users and Permissions and clicking into your name. You’ll need to scroll down to a section called Point of Sale access where you’ll see the option to type a pin in and save it or click a button to generate a random one.

17-41-55594-21964
17-41-55594-21964953×185 13.7 KB

Once logged into your POS app, you’ll be heading to ≡ > Settings > Checkout > Payment Settings > Default Payment Types > Gift Card and enabling both options that you see on the screen. Namely:

  • Accept gift card payments at checkout
  • Accept physical gift cards

We’ve got a guide on how you can redeem your gift cards through the POS app. But the way that it works is:

When the customer comes in with their gift card:

  • head to the Home page of the POS app
  • tap on Add customer to add a name and email address for receipt, etc. This is recommended but not essential because it definitely helps with marketing efforts if you get consent for using that email for marketing. You can learn about email marketing from our help document.
  • Add the product(s) to the POS cart
  • Tap on Checkout
  • Tap on Gift Card
  • Either Point your camera at the barcode and scan it or tap on Enter gift card code
  • If you scan the barcode you’ll know it’s been successfully scanned by the camera as you’ll see a green banner appear saying ‘’$10.00 gift card balance…Redeem $10.00’’ or whatever the value of the gift card is. When you tap on Redeem $10.00 you’ll see a new screen appear on your POS app saying payment approved

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions. -Hyde

3

What if the POS giftcard option doesn’t give you the ability to select both digital and physical - it says that gift card options need to be setup, however, we already added a giftcard as a product. Any clue why we can’t activate physical gift cards

4

Same issue. When I enable Gift Card payment types, that is the only option I get. There is no selection for “physical gift card”